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Interview with Gilberte Favre about her book "Homeopathy for Sheep"published in October 2011 by Narayana Verlag |
| The interview was conducted for Narayana Verlag by: Stefanie Olhöft, animal naturopath |
| S.O.: I read your book on homeopathy for sheep with great interest, Ms Favre! And, indeed – as you yourself write in your foreword – there is little literature on sheep, especially when it comes to homeopathy. Yet you have produced a handbook that goes far beyond information on homeopathic treatment! It also provides sound knowledge about typical clinical pictures in sheep. One can hear the practitioner in you! Would you first tell us a little about yourself and your (professional) connection with sheep? | ||
 Author and homeopath Gilberte Favre |
G.F.: My original professional activity had nothing at all to do with sheep, but it led me directly to them: after completing music studies at the Conservatory and Music Academy in Zurich I had an intense period filled with travelling, music teaching, concerts and church music performances. After 20 years I was burnt out. Around that time we were looking for good company for our donkey and the first sheep was bought. By chance I discovered the Skudde breed (East Prussian country sheep) and from then on it was clear to me that I wanted to breed this breed. Gradually there were more sheep until one day the herd size reached around a hundred animals. |
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My then partner and I bought a remote farmhouse with large grounds. Since then I was responsible for my sheep. As the only sheep keeper for miles around, no one could help me when one of the animals was ill or injured. Only a veterinarian from a neighbouring village would sometimes assist me, although he was not specialised in sheep. I had no choice but to read as much specialist literature on sheep as possible. Because I always kept records of my sheep's illnesses and their course of treatment, over time I learned from my mistakes but also from successful treatments. I had to learn relatively quickly everything from obstetrics to treatment of diseases and accidents, ear‑tag insertion, hoof care, shearing, castrations up to euthanasia. Back then there was no internet to ask someone for advice. Fortunately, I already had a background in phytotherapy and was able to alleviate many sheep complaints with my own plant preparations. S.O.: Ms Favre, please tell our readers a little about your "homeopathic background"! How did you come to homeopathy? G.F.: My interest in homeopathy was awakened one day when I came across the term "homeopathy" in a medicinal plant book. What appealed to me about homeopathy was that about 70% of the remedies are of plant origin. However, the entry into this boundless subject was difficult, especially regarding the laws, the rules of homeopathic treatment and the characteristics of individual remedies. Consequently I completed a four-year specialised course in naturopathy in Zurich (focus: human homeopathy), finishing with a diploma thesis. Thanks to my own many years of experience with my sheep I could draw on an experiential base and therefore apply the acquired homeopathic knowledge quickly (sheep-specific). S.O.: In your book you describe interesting aspects and compare homeopathy impressively with music, among other things. Which school or role models have influenced your homeopathic thinking and work? G.F.: As mentioned, as a professional musician I was correspondingly predisposed. I have always been fascinated by musical and physical phenomena that are perceptible but not visible. Small example: a soprano singer can, by singing a high note, make a glass shatter. No living being (human, animal, plant), no matter (water, stone, air etc.) can escape atmospheric, seasonal or physical vibrations. Likewise, each individual has its own vibrations, whether in visible form of contentment, anger, restlessness, fear etc.: all vibrations that are not visible, measurable, and yet are perceived by the individual itself and by the surroundings. |
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| A healthy, content sheep lying in the straw, ruminating, looks different to the observer than a sheep that is in pain, restless, constantly bleating and cannot find peace. In this respect I did not learn these insights from any school or role models, but from my own observations and experiences. To return to the sentence mentioned at the outset: as a professional musician you have it "for life", it is ingrained. Handling and understanding vibrations of any kind is reactivated according to the situation (which can sometimes also be a burden). |  |
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S.O.: When comparing musical vibrations and homeopathic complex remedies you note that dissonances arise when the tones, i.e. the potency levels, are too close together because the frequencies are too similar. That would mean that the frequency of a homeopathic remedy depends exclusively on its potency and not also on the remedy as such. How do you see this? G.F.: It is not the case that the frequency depends solely on the potency level. Countless other factors also play a role. Some examples:
Given this wide range I had to limit myself to the main structures, i.e. the factors most noticeable in practice. Dissonances are most evident when unsuitable potency step intervals are chosen between remedies. Defining remedies themselves as suitable or less suitable in relation to others would have exceeded the scope and would only confuse readers. S.O.: A mnemonic in connection with prescribing complex remedies in your book essentially states that after using complex remedies one should continue treatment with single remedies until complete cure. In my view, the use of complex remedies does change the symptom picture, similar to how an allopathic drug would. Do you not see this as problematic for prescribing a single remedy? G.F.: It can certainly happen that a complex remedy masks the symptom picture after administration. In practice it is often urgent. In such cases it is quite legitimate to administer a complex remedy in a low potency (organotropic). These low potencies are then relatively quickly "used up". The first impression you have of the patient is the one before the first dose. This first impression can also be decisive for the choice of the follow-up remedy (single remedy). My experience shows that complexes usually produce an improvement of the case and the subsequent symptoms then disappear quickly with the appropriate single remedy. Of course it is desirable to give the patient a single remedy from the very beginning. However, for most users interested in homeopathy, single‑remedy treatment is almost impossible due to lack of experience and/or knowledge of materia medica. |
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S.O.: How is the repertorisation you present to be understood? Is the evaluation of the 30 symptoms a kind of "herd repertorisation"? What I would like to know is also to what extent you treat sheep individually? G.F.: The repertorisation describes the behaviour of sheep in general, independent of breed, use, locations, husbandry conditions etc. It is the "archetype" sheep that is described in this repertorisation. (In my life I have seen and experienced thousands of sheep and have repeatedly recognised this archetype.) The repertorisation is intended on the one hand as a guide; on the other hand, it can under certain circumstances help you find the remedy suitable for the individual more quickly than if nothing had already been "pre-tracked". In this "general repertorisation" you are already made aware of sheep‑specific peculiarities, which can under certain circumstances facilitate a targeted search for the simillimum when treating the individual. |
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S.O.: Which of today's homeopathic currents personally influences your work the most? G.F.: Currents have something dangerous for me: in a current you can quickly be carried away and end up somewhere you no longer find your way. It is not only in homeopathy that many subgroups, differing opinions, interpretations and other views arise. Often certain views drift into dimensions that are no longer comprehensible to me. S.O.: Have you also studied Hahnemann's miasm theory? How do you see its applicability in the livestock sector? |
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G.F.: According to my training I work classically miasmatically in my practice and have always had good results with it. In human homeopathy miasmatic work is a great tool for understanding genetic burdens and the chronic diseases that arise from them (and their treatment) in my patients. In the treatment of livestock miasmatic therapy is of little importance in the sense that, for example, one would compile a family history for each individual animal in a cattle herd to see where the miasmatic burden runs as a "red thread" through generations. |
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Compiling an anamnesis over at least three generations for a farm animal (cattle, sheep, goat) is, due to lack of facts, an impossibility. Here one treats according to acute symptoms = clinical homeopathy. Gilberte Favre Thank you, Ms Favre, for this interesting conversation! |
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| Source: Tierheilpraktiker Aktuell / Stefanie Olhöft | ||
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Gilberte Favre: Homeopathy for Sheep |
